Sidney's Hehnke elected chairman of statewide alliance

LINCOLN, Neb. – The City of Sidney's Public Services Director John Hehnke was elected the chairman of board of directors for the Public Alliance for Community Energy for fiscal year 2015-16 at its annual meeting last week.

ACE is the community-owned, not-for-profit retail natural gas supplier of NMPP Energy. It has been a natural gas supplier in the Choice Gas Program in Nebraska since 1998. As the only community-owned supplier in the Choice Gas Program, ACE supplies natural gas to more than 22,000 customers and includes 72 communities and one public power district in Nebraska in its membership.

Those elected to one-year terms as board of director officers beginning April 1 were:

• Hehnke;

• Bruce Clymer, city administrator, Gothenburg, Neb., vice chair;

• Cheryl Saathoff, clerk/treasurer, Franklin, Neb., secretary/treasurer.

As officers they will also serve on the ACE Executive Committee along with five elected committee members:

• Ron Doggett, electric utilities superintendent, Gering, Neb.;

• Chris Rector, city administrator, Gibbon, Neb.;

• Andrew Devine, city administrator, Albion, Neb.;

• Paul Markowski, superintendent of utilities, Ord, Neb.;

• Richard Pedersen, city council representative, Burwell, Neb.

The Executive Committee oversees business operations of ACE in between the quarterly meetings of the ACE Board of Directors.